Gameday Blog: Bruins vs. Senators

The Senators will carry a 1-0 lead into the third period over
the Bruins.

Boston got outshot 18-8 in the middle frame, as -- once again --
Thomas was busy was the Sens buzzing, while the rebound-happy
Lehner saw little vulcanized rubber.

The highlight of the period came midway through when Milan Lucic
tried to take out half the Senators. First he slashed Karlsson,
which prompted a delayed penalty. On his way back up the ice, he
exchanged a few shoves with Daniel Alfredsson before absolutely
trucking Kyle Turris.

Turris, of course, was the one who elbowed Joe Corvo on Saturday
night. During the period (and before Lucic leveled him), the former
Coyotes forward went hard to the net then took his sweet time
getting up off of Thomas. I guess you could say he had it
coming.

The Bruins hold a 20-10 edge in hits, but their performance has
been fairly lifeless through 40 minutes.

Kudos go to Thomas for keeping his team in this one, as the
netminder has stopped 30-of-31 on the night.

FIRST INTERMISSION

SCORE
OTT - 1
BOS - 0

SHOTS
OTT - 13
BOS - 7

Twenty minutes are in the books here at the Garden where the
Bruins trail the Senators by a score of 1-0.

It took until 14:44 for either team to get on the board. With
the Sens on a power play thanks to an interference call on Tyler
Seguin, captain Daniel Alfredsson set up for an effective screen in
front of Tim Thomas.

That cleared the way for scorching-hot defenseman Erik Karlsson
to rip one from the point and past the Boston netminder, making it
1-0 Ottawa.

Newcomers Mike Mottau and Brian Rolston are both in the lineup
for the B's. Mottau saw 3:55 of TOI in the first and was credited
with one hit. Rolston had 4:08 of ice time, won 1-of-4 at the dot
(25%) and was whistled for an erroneous tripping call.

Boston outhit the Senators 9-6 in the opening frame, but that's
about all they can pat themselves on the back for. Robin Lehner had
it way too easy in the first period, as the B's did little to test
the young, Swedish netminder.

PREGAME NOTES

STARTING GOALTENDERS: Thomas (26-12-0, 2.23 GAA, .928 Save %)
vs.
Lehner (2-0-0, 2.00 GAA, .927 Save %). Thomas is 23-8-2 with a
2.01 GAA
and .935 Save % with six shutouts in 33 career games against
Ottawa.
Lehner is 0-1-0 with a 4.07 GAA and .879 Save % in one career
game
against the Bruins.

Thomas has won 12 straight games against Northeast Division
opponents
and is 13-1-0 against the Northeast this year.

SENS STREAKING: Erik Karlsson set a new franchise record
among
defensemen for most points (65), assists (51) and multi-point
games
(18). Over his current seven game assist/point streak, he has
recorded
17 points (six goals, 11 assists), which is more than any other
NHL
player over the span. He was named the NHL’s First
Star of the Week
yesterday.

Center Jason Spezza currently leads the team in points and goals
with
28-42=70 totals and has a nine-game point streak in progress
with
8-12=20 totals during this span. The nine-game point streak is
the
longest active streak in the NHL.

SENATORS NOTEBOOK: The Senators and Bruins face off tonight in
their
fifth of six meetings in the 2011-12 season… The Bruins
have won the
previous four meetings this season… Currently Ottawa (74)
is three
points behind Boston (77) in the Northeast Division, although the
Sens
have played four more games... On February 27th the Sens
acquired
defenseman Matt Gilroy from Tampa Bay in exchange for defenseman
Brian
Lee. Gilroy has 2-15=17 totals this season so far with 1-1=2
totals in
his last five games. The Senators are tied for the NHL lead
in having
won six games when trailing after two periods this season and
rank
second in the league in having won 10 games when trailing after
the
opening 20 minutes.